Tag Archives: Photography

In an earlier post, I spoke about a forthcoming augmented reality project that I will be presenting as part of the ADA Mesh Cities Symposium in Auckland. The project titled Finding the Ghosts of K Road will explore Auckland’s oldest street, hopefully uncovering some of the ghosts of the past though the imagery of the old photographs of the streetscape.

Something that has been really wonderful about developing this project is the help and support I have received from some of my artist friends, who have generously shared stories about K Road. For example, Trudy Lane shared some very interesting information about some of her ancestors who lived in the area. The story below is very sad about the loss of a number of her ancestors. Trudy writes:

My Great Great Grandfather — Captain William Solloway Lane — died at sea in 1893, failing to return from a voyage to Tasmania. With him on board was his wife Lucy’s sister-in-law and her youngest sister. She was pregnant with twins at the time. 3 days after giving birth to them, Lucy died. One of the twins also died two days later.
Captain William Solloway Lane, died April 1893
Christina, born 11 April, 1893
Lucy Lane, died 12 April, 1893

In the material she sent me was a story of how this tragedy impacted the then small community of Auckland. I have transcribed this text from the images below:

This sad chronicle so moved everyone in the then small town of Auckland that people lined the streets from Ponsonby to Symonds Streets as the funeral cortege for Lucy Chiffinch Lane and her baby passed by.

Here are the images from Trudy.

Image credit: Trudy Lane family history

Image credit: Trudy Lane family history

Image credit: Trudy Lane family history

Image credit: Trudy Lane family history

Trudy also informed me about the work of historian Edward Bennett, who has done extensive research on K Road. I have subsequently been in touch with Edward and he has been a great source of guidance for the walk, and hopefully will be our tour guide on the day!

The walk is scheduled for the 12th September and will start at Artspace in Karangahape Road at 15:15.

Here is the map – in progress:

I am really grateful for being guided by the experts for this project, people who have an intimate knowledge of K Road. It really helps me to get a better sense of the place I am exploring, which I hope will result in a richer experience for people doing the walk.

It is not long until we will be in Auckland for the Symposium – can’t wait!

Today we went to one of my favourite places for a weekend drive on a winter day: Mount Stromlo. When there is snow up on the Brindabella Ranges, it is a beautiful place to see the snow on the mountains. Although there was no snow (despite the cold weather of late), it was a lovely afternoon for taking some photos.

The Mount Stromlo Observatory located just outside of Canberra, is part of the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Australian National University (ANU).

A bit of background from Mr Wikipedia:

The observatory was established in 1924 as The Commonwealth Solar Observatory. The Mount Stromlo site had already been used for observations in the previous decade, a small observatory being established there by Pietro Baracchi using the Oddie telescope being located there in 1911.

When we first moved to Canberra in 2001, it was a place of wonderment and we had a great day exploring all the telescopes dotted on top of the mountain.

On 18 January 2003, a devastating firestorm hit Canberra and Mount Stromlo (which was surrounded by a plantation pine forest) endured significant damage. The fire destroyed five telescopes, workshops, seven homes, and the heritage-listed administration building.

I have pulled together a little photo essay to present this lovely place, complete with photographs of ruins and some of the existing telescopes.

The expedition was accompanied for early stages of the journey by Mehmet Çam and other members of the Istanbul production company Ajans21, who shot footage for a potential documentary about Evliya and the expedition.

Caroline chats with camera crew, Hersek, 21 September 2009.

From Hersek, on the southern shore of the Sea of Marmara, we followed Evliya to Iznik, Bursa, Kütahya, Afyon, Uşak and Simav, before turning back through Çavdarhisar and returning to Kütahya, Evliya’s father’s city.

Patricia Daunt, Donna, and Andy Byfield arrive at Ovaçık camp, 2009.

While finding the Way, we established beyond a doubt that the Turkish countryside remains ideal for riding, trekking, and other forms of independent and sustainable tourism.

Ways best travelled by hoof or foot.

So long as traditional agricultural practices of semi-nomadic grazing and farmers’ shared use of the land keep the countryside open and unprivatised, Turkey remains one of the very few places in the developed world in which it is possible to make such long distance cross-country journeys unhindered by ‘No Trespassing!’ signs and barbed wire fences. Turkish hospitality guarantees travellers safe passage and a warm welcome.

An early-morning farewell from Ovaçık, 2009.

Another thing we learned was just how widely Evliya is still known wherever he went. In every village that we passed through where there was a school, the children had mostly heard of him.

Torquay is considered the gateway of GOR and is located about 20 kilometres south of Geelong. The township faces Bass Strait, so it is a bit chilly to swim in the ocean compared to the warmer waters of SE Queensland and northern NSW, where we usually go swimming. Although the water is cold, Torquay and nearby Bells Beach are famous for their surf beaches and surf culture is a key aspect of Torquay’s identity. Mr Wikipedia says:

Many of the world’s most famous surf companies have their home in Torquay, including Rip Curl and Quiksilver- all of which make up part of the Surf Coast Plaza, which provides shopping and eating, as well as the Surf World Museum.

If surfing is your thing, then the best time to head to Torquay is over Easter to check out the world’s best surfers compete in the mighty Rip Curl Pro.

The Torquay shops are well worth a look, with a number of galleries and interesting boutiques featuring local art and craft. We came across the work of Ed Sloane and also the Watermarks Gallery had some lovely photographic art works.

The coastline around this region is beautiful and it is no wonder Torquay became a popular spot for day trippers and picnickers from Melbourne and Geelong. For us, it was a great start to our journey and we hope to return back there some day soon.

I’m staying with friends in a cottage next to the vast Somerset Dam in the Village of Villaneuve. Villeneuve is a very small village in the Somerset Region, Queensland, Australia, The town is named after the railway station, which in turn took its name from Frank Villeneuve Nicholson, owner of the property Villeneuve.

I arrived on Sunday night from Brisbane and went for a Photowalk last night and again at dawn this morning. Here are some of my images, unedited (apart from my watermark) and not in any order. I often find that sunset and dawn give the best opportunities for great photos. The light changes quickly but subtly and if you take lots of shots you’ll always end up with some interesting images.

This morning I woke up to see that we now have over 300 WordPress followers to our Geokult Travel blog – how exciting!

Over the 3.5 months since we started we have achieved:

301 followers

182 posts

almost 5,400 views

over 1700 ‘likes’

Our current publishing reach also includes 1,500 people on Facebook through our Geokult page and personal pages, over 1,200 on LinkedIn, 480 on Twitter via @bytetime and @geokult_travel and coverage across Google+ and Tumblr.

People from all over the world have checked out our blog, have a look at the map below.

Geokult Travel map of viewers

Thank you all for your support and we look forward to bringing you more interesting articles about travel, arts and culture.

Today I write this post from the the very beautiful village of Nyuh Kuning, where we are staying as guests of my uncle, Garry Benson, who also writes for Geokult Travel. His most recent post is also about this lovely little village, whose name means Yellow Coconuts. The village is located close to Ubud, in the heart of Bali.

Our rooms are amazing, with views of the rice paddies, little shrines everywhere and an indoor/outdoor bathroom (something I am obsessed with in Bali). The only challenge is the very slow wifi – I have been trying to upload images since last night and they are still loading.Only one image uploaded while we were there – this beautiful lotus from the garden pictured above.

When we return to Sanur, I will write another post with some images from this beautiful, peaceful place.

One thing worth mentioning in passing is that Ubud and the surrounding villages are very conscious of the environment and are focused on being sustainable – you can check out this great website Ubud: Now and Then for more information.